Date: April 7, 2000

Grade Level(s): Kindergarten

Subject(s):

• Science/Animals

Description: How do animals hide? Animals hide by using camouflage. Some animals and insects have specific colors and or patterns on their fur/skin that help them to blend into their environments. Explore with students some predators and prey that use camouflage.

Goals: NSES Content Standard C (Organisms and their environments) Science as Inquiry; Life Science: Distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms (p. 129).  MT Content Standard 3: How living organisms interact with their environment

Objectives:

Students will:

1. Recognize that some animals and insects have colors/patterns on their fur, skin, etc. that help them match the elements in their environments. The use of these colors and patterns help the animals to hide and are called camouflage.
2. Identify some animals that use camouflage such as lions, tigers, pumas, cheetahs, jaguars, giraffes, gazelles, and zebras.

Materials:

• Fabric cut-outs of lions, tigers, pumas, cheetahs, jaguars, giraffes, gazelles, & zebras (one set in natural colors, one set in unusual colors such as pink giraffe)
• Velcro to put on cut-outs
• Poster board with velcro to display 2 categories of animals
• Stickers of animals in natural colors
• Photos of previously mentioned animals
• Coloring sheets of these animals
• Crayons/markers/colored pencils

Focus Phase:

Ask students: Do you play hide and seek with your friends? How do you play this game? What do you need to do so you won't be found? Do you think animals play hide and seek too? How? Why?

Challenge Phase:

Hand out fabric cutouts to students ensuring each group receives some cutouts from both types of fabric. Have students examine the cutouts in pairs. Ask students to sort the cutouts into two piles. One pile should contain animals in their natural colors that would be hard to see in the natural environment. The other pile should have the cutouts of the unusually colored animals that would be easy to see in the natural world.

Concept Introduction Phase:

Have students tell the class which animals they think would be hard to see and those they think would be easy to see.
Place the cutouts on the appropriate sides of the poster board.
Ask children to explain why they think the unusually colored animals would be easy to see.
Ask what colors and patterns these cutout animals need in order to be able to hide.
Ask why the cutouts of animals in their usual, natural colors would be hard to see in their habitats.
Introduce the word camouflage. Define this term.
Show pictures of camouflaged animals. Allow students to find the hidden animals.
Discuss why animals want to blend in with their environments.
Introduce the terms predator and prey.
Identify which animals in the fabric cutouts are predators and which are prey.

Concept Application:

Have students choose an animal coloring sheet.
Place matching animal stickers onto the sheets.
Have students examine the colors of their animals.
Have students orally describe the colors they see on their animals.
Ask students what colors they need to color the background scenes of their coloring sheet in order to hide/camouflage their
animals so their classmates cannot see them.
Have students color their animals and backgrounds to camouflage the animals.

Assessment:

1. The students will show understanding of camouflage by coloring the animal coloring sheets. The animals and background scenes should contain similar colors and patterns so the animals are camouflaged.

2. The students will be able to verbally describe the kinds of surroundings particular animals are camouflaged in.